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More Dems join call for airline to hold union election
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and a pair of House Democrats called Friday for a union fight at American Airlines to be resolved.
Democrats have begun rallying around the Communications Workers of America (CWA) in its efforts to set up a labor election at the airline, which is in the midst of bankruptcy proceedings.
American filed a lawsuit against the National Mediation Board (NMB) earlier this month that objected to the union election, but Pelosi and Reps. Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) and George Miller (D-Calif.) said Friday that the vote should move forward as scheduled.
"This is no small matter," the lawmakers wrote in a letter to American CEO Thomas Horton. "The company's refusal to comply with the National Mediation Board's order, which calls for a fair and free election among American Airlines' passenger service workers, effectively denies nearly 10,000 Americans the right to vote in an election."
In its lawsuit to prevent the election, American is arguing that the petition to hold the union vote was conducted under old NMB rules that required 35 percent of a company's workforce to say it was in favor of voting on unionization. Congress raised the threshold to 50 percent in a bill to provide funding for the Federal Aviation Administration that was approved earlier this year.
But Pelosi, Rahall and Miller said in their letter to Horton that the airline's lawsuit was "sharply at at odds with congressional intent and legislative history."
"It is a well-documented strategy to use litigation solely to delay and ultimately frustrate workers' attempts to organize a union," the lawmakers wrote. "We certainly hope that American Airlines hold itself to a higher standard when it comes to respecting workers' fundamental rights."
The Democrats added that it was "not surprising" that American Airlines' employees were considering voting to be represented by a union.
"American Airlines is in bankruptcy. Bankruptcies create great uncertainty for workers," the lawmakers wrote.
"The agency tasked with determining whether these workers have met the requirements for the union election has ruled in favor of an election," they continued. "The agency has ordered American Airlines to provide names and addresses of eligible voters so that the election can be conducted. We expect American Airlines to comply with that order."
